Last night I had the pleasure of attending a midweek football match between Wollongong United and South Coast Flame. Whilst the two sides are from the same local area, they play in different competitions (Illawarra Premier League & NSW League Two respectively). It was sure to be a great game, one where we can gauge the strength of the local side compared to the state based competition.
South Coast Flame however decided to play a youth heavy lineup, eventually falling 2-0 to the 2022 Round of 32 entrants.
It begs the question why a team would willing send in a youth side in the cup. Especially as the cup entrants make up the teams of the NSW based Waratah Cup, the oldest footballing competition in the country.
All teams in the NPL, League One & League Two are forced to participate in the competition, with the latter two entering from round 3 and NPL coming in round 4.
Potential reasons for fielding youth are: to avoid embarrassment for losing to a local side, playing a youth side when your confident of beating a much weaker team, wanting to bomb out of the cup early to avoid extra games and travel, or it could even be as innocent as senior players not being available.
Any and all of those reasons make a mockery of the competition and question its integrity. Would United have defeated Flame anyway? Possibly, but we’ll never be certain now. The cup provides a unique opportunity for teams from differing leagues to compete against each other, and to not play a strong side is not only showing disrespect to your opponent but also to the competition.
That brings us to the next point; if teams don’t want to play in the cup, should they be forced to? Should Leagues One & Two be forced to play if they’d prefer to focus on their league?
We would argue that yes, they still should be made to play for the integrity of the competition. We’d also like to point out that we have heard reports of other sides playing their youth instead of a senior squad.
What are your thoughts? Are cup ties appropriate to play a youth squad or should all teams be playing to win?
Note: FNSW also need to update their website, as League Three doesn’t exist anymore…
I’d say two big reasons are:
– Senior player wages have gotten out of control, and clubs just don’t want to pay extra for a competition they don’t see themselves as having a chance at winning
– Clubs that know they’re in with a strong chance at promotion, want to focus all of their energy towards the league games rather than a cup that, again, they don’t think they have a chance at winning anyway
I don’t see how this is a big issue it happens in leagues all over the world where teams play weaker sides or young players in cup competitions it might be to give fringe players some needed game time or to give younger players opportunities to play in the senior team or it even for different reasons. I think giving younger players an opportunity to play in this competition especially if it’s not a priority for the club a great experience & assists in development of these players.